Thomas L. Kane

Thomas Leiper Kane (27 January 1822-26 December 1883) was a US Army Brigadier-General who played a major role in the Mormons' migration to Utah and served in the American Civil War.

Biography
Thomas Leiper Kane was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1822, and he spent several years in Paris, France, where he adopted revolutionary ideals. He became a lawyer in 1846 and unsuccessfully sought election to the California state government after the end of the Mexican-American War. Also in 1846, he met members of the LDS Church at a conference in Philadelphia, and he offered to assist them in their efforts to emigrate to the American West. In exchange for 500 Mormons serving in the US Army during the Mexican-American War, the Mormons were allowed to occupy Potawatomi Native American lands along the Missouri River. Some theorized that Kane secretly converted to Mormonism and was baptized in the Missouri in 1846, although he was known to identify simply as a Christian, not practicing his old religion of Presbyterianism. He defended Mormon leader Brigham Young in eastern newspapers, even turning down President Millard Fillmore's offer to appoint him Governor of Utah, recommending Young for the position instead. During the 1850s, he campaigned for Utah statehood and defended the LDS Church's interests at every opportunity. When the Utah War broke out in the winter of 1857-1858, he made a strenuous trip from the East Coast to Salt Lake City, and he negotiated the withdrawal of the US Army in 1860. Whe the American Civil War broke out, he raised a mounted rifle regiment in Pennsylvania, and he taught his men skirmisher tactics, teaching them how to scatter under fire. On 20 December 1861, he lost several teeth and part of his vision after being shot in the face at the Battle of Dranesville, and he later served in George Dashiell Bayard's cavalry during the Valley Campaign. He was heavily wounded and captured at Harrisonburg on 6 June 1862 and exchanged in August, and he became a Brigadier-General on 7 September 1862. He fought at the Battle of Chancellorsville, but when his horse threw him into water, he developed pneumonia. Kane rose from his sickbed to fight at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, and he again fell ill. He resigned his commission on 7 November 1863 due to ill health, and he helped to found the Allegheny community of Kane, Pennsylvania. He died in 1883, and Kane County, Utah is named for him.